Plastic bag bans on the rise in Texas

AUSTIN - Austin has bans on plastic bags and one of the state's strictest tree removal ordinances.

Denton became the first in the state to outlaw hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Although Gov. Greg Abbott has said derisively that such ordinances show that Texas is "being Californianized," the Austin American-Statesman reports that environment-minded ordinances seem to be working in Austin and on the rise in the Lone Star State.

At least a dozen Texas cities have bag bans, the newspaper reported Friday.

Dallas last month started charging an "environmental fee" of a nickel per single-use paper or plastic bag at groceries, convenience stores and big-box retailers. Retailers can still provide free multi-use bags.

The ordinance is designed to reduce litter.

Darren Hodges, a City Council member in the West Texas city of Fort Stockton, said the bag ban has vastly reduced the "millions of plastic eyesores" caught on cactus, mesquite and barbed-wire fence.